Physicists Confirm the Existence of a New Superionic Form of Water

物理学家确认一种新超离子水的存在

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Superionic water was only hypothesized in the 1980s, and had been described for the first time by a group of scientists at SISSA and ICTP, in association with a Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart. For that study, published in Science in 1999, the scholars used highly refined models of realistic computer simulation.

超级离子水仅在20世纪80年代被假设，并且由SISSA和ICTP的一组科学家首次与斯图加特的马克斯 - 普朗克研究所联合进行了描述。 对于1999年在科学杂志上发表的这项研究，学者们使用了高度精确的现实计算机模拟模型。

An original state, both solid and liquid at the same time: this is the latest news on a substance -water- so familiar to everyone but which appears to hold always fresh surprises for scientists. Its name is “superionic water”; it doesn’t exist on Earth but it could be abundant inside certain planets of the solar system such as Uranus and Neptune and on many of the exoplanets of more recent discovery. Its existence has now been experimentally confirmed in a study recently published in Nature Physics. Superionic water was only hypothesized in the 1980s, and had been described for the first time by a group of scientists at SISSA and ICTP, in association with a Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart. For that study, published in Science in 1999, the scholars used highly refined models of realistic computer simulation. The relevance of the two research studies has also been highlighted by a recent article on The New York Times.

原始状态，同时是固体和液体：这是关于物质的最新消息 - 水对每个人来说都很熟悉，但对科学家来说似乎总是有新的惊喜。 它的名字是“superionic water”（超离子水）; 它不存在于地球上，但它可能在太阳系的某些行星，如天王星和海王星以及许多最近发现的系外行星中是丰富的。 它的存在已经在最近发表在Nature Physics（自然物理）上的一项研究中得到了实验证实。 超级离子水仅在20世纪80年代被假设，并且由SISSA和ICTP的一组科学家首次与斯图加特的马克斯 - 普朗克研究所联合进行了描述。 对于1999年在科学杂志上发表的这项研究，学者们使用了高度精确的现实计算机模拟模型。纽约时报最近的一篇文章也强调了这两项研究的相关性。

Confirmation, twenty years later

“Almost twenty years ago, in 1999, with our study published in Science, we were the first to confirm the existence of this superionic phase through simulations which were truly advanced at the time,” explains Professor Erio Tosatti, one of the authors of that research. “The new experimental result is a further evidence that the theoretical model we defined many years ago was able, despite the then-limited computational resources, to predict very well physical situations which were difficult to reproduce in a laboratory.” Sandro Scandolo, another of the authors of the 1999 publication, confirms. “Thanks to that study, we were able to claim the existence of this superionic state much earlier than the experimental confirmation. It was a real achievement. The evidence has now confirmed that those models work exceptionally well.”

二十年后的确认

Erio Tosatti教授，该研究论文的作者之一，解释说“几乎是二十年前，在1999年的科学杂志上发表的研究中我们首次通过当时非常先进的模拟证实了这个超离子相的存在”。Sandro Scandolo，另一个 1999年出版物的作者也证实“新的实验结果进一步证明，尽管当时有限的计算资源，我们在多年前定义的理论模型能够很好地预测在实验室中难以再现的物理情况”。“由于这项研究，我们能够比实验确认早得多地宣布这种超离子状态的存在；这是一个真正的成就。 现在证据证实，这些模型运行得非常好”。

What is superionic water?

A water molecule is formed by two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom, with a V structure. In the current study, which appeared in Nature Physics, researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have succeeded in recreating the extreme conditions, very high pressure and temperature, in which water is in a particular phase: superionic. Scandolo explains, “It is a very interesting state because it is neither solid nor liquid: the oxygen remains fixed, while the protons are free to flow.”

什么是超离子水？

水分子由与氧原子键合的两个氢原子形成，具有V形结构。 在当前出现在自然物理学中的研究中，劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室和加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的研究人员成功地重现了水处于特定阶段的极端条件，即高压和高温下水的超离子相。 Scandolo解释说：“这是一个非常有趣的状态，因为它既不是固体也不是液体：氧气保持固定，而质子却能自由流动。”

On the one hand, heat weakens the bonds between oxygen and hydrogen; on the other, the high pressure keeps the oxygen blocked in a crystalline alignment, therefore a solid, while the hydrogen atoms, in a liquid form, can move among them. This transforms high pressure water from an insulating ice into a conductor, where electricity is carried by positively charged atoms rather than electrons, obviously negative. “If we were to succeed in recreating this configuration at less prohibitive conditions, we would have an ideal battery, with charges that move freely inside a solid mechanical structure,” explains Sandro Scandolo.

一方面，热量削弱了氧和氢之间的键; 另一方面，高压使得氧气被阻挡在晶体排列之中，因此是固体，而液体形式的氢原子可以在它们之间移动。这将高压水从绝缘冰转变为导体，其中电由正电荷原子而不是电子携带，显然为负电荷。Sandro Scandolo解释道， “如果我们能够在较低限度的条件下成功重建这种配置，我们将拥有理想的电池，充电能够在坚固的机械结构内自由移动”。

The superionic phase was already known for other substances, but not for water. “The study which appeared on Nature Physics is of major importance because it provides for the first time experimental evidence of the existence of a superionic state of water at extreme temperature and pressure conditions. The result was made possible by gigantic developments in this field, also in terms of cutting-edge experimental technologies and facilities built in the United States,” Scandolo said.

对于其他物质来说，超离子相已众所周知，但水不是这样。Scandolo说，“《自然物理学》上出现的这项研究非常重要，因为它首次提供了在极端温度和压力条件下存在超离子状态水的实验证据。这一成果能促使这一领域的巨大发展，以及在美国建立的前沿实验技术和设施方面成为可能。

Things from another world

The question that remains unanswered, say Scandolo and Tosatti, is if water in planets of our solar system such as Uranus and Neptune is in a liquid , solid, or superionic state. The conditions in these planets, in fact, would favour the latter possibility. “It would make a huge difference, because it would affect the convective phenomena in these planets, but also their thermal and mechanical properties, about which we know little. So far, one has to rely on information and models that come from the physics of materials. This research thus provides additional, interesting elements about the other planets of the solar system and beyond,” says Scandolo.

来自另一个世界的物质

Scandolo和Tosatti说，这个问题还没有得到解答，如果我们的太阳系行星，比如天王星和海王星上的水处于液态，固态或超离子状态。事实上，这些行星的条件将存在有利于后者的可能性。Scandolo说，“这会产生巨大的差异，因为它会影响这些行星的对流现象，还会影响它们的热和机械特性，而我们对此几乎一无所知。到目前为止，人们必须依赖来自材料物理学的信息和模型。因此，这项研究提供了关于太阳系以及太阳系以外其他行星的更多有趣元素”。

The confirmation which arrived with the study in Nature Physics also says more. “It shows that the calculations and the theoretical simulations we develop in this field are not only crucial to predict extreme physical situations like those which we would find at the centre of the earth or other planets, very difficult to reproduce experimentally, but also represent ideal tools to model and search new materials with original and unforeseeable practical applications,” Scandolo concludes.

在《自然物理学》的研究中得到了更多的证实。Scandolo总结说，“它表明我们在这个领域发展的计算和理论模拟不仅对预测极端的物理情况至关重要，例如我们可以在地球或其他行星的中心发现的极端物理情况（非常难以实验复制），而且代表理想工具来模拟和搜索具有原始和不可预见的实际应用的新材料”。